It’s Day 3 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics, and we’re learning that anything can happen! Favorites go down, medals start breaking, and both of us have some major cultural moments. Plus, what did we forget to tell you yesterday?
Sports on today’s program:
- Alpine skiing
- Curling
- Figure skating
- Freestyle skiing
- Ice hockey
- Luge
- Ski jumping
- Snowboard
- Speed skating
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Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This is an uncorrected machine-generated transcript and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the audio. Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics-Day 3
Jill Jaracz: [00:00:00] Bonjourno and welcome to Keep the Flame Alive. Day three coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. I am your host, Jill Jarris, coming to you from Shta House. Joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Allison Ciao Cota.
Alison Brown: I may have a face when I speak French and Italian, but you have a hand motion whenever you say shook the stonehouse.
Like, here we are
Jill Jaracz: and nobody can see. Thank goodness. ’cause we’re both in pajamas. We [00:01:00] so we can roll right into bed. Well, you know, I, that’s the Italian, I’m learning gestures. They taught us gestures in the opening ceremony. I am going to gesture. At least with you just kinda look weird in public. I,
Alison Brown: I got told today that people speak Italian to me because I look so Italian.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well that’s good.
Alison Brown: I said that made me feel nice. ’cause then I realized this is why I brought uncomfortable shoes so I wouldn’t be tagged as an American.
What did we forget to tell you yesterday?
Jill Jaracz: well, let’s get onto our new segment. What did we forget to tell you yesterday, which as I was talking about the segment, my brain is going, is this really a segment? Because what if you took good notes today, Jill, what if you don’t remember? You know what if you said everything? And yet, 15 minutes after, within 15 minutes after we turned off the recording, Allison, you went, who is this woman in this photo?[00:02:00]
And I said, what woman? And then you showed me a photo of me with a woman that you
Alison Brown: took
Jill Jaracz: with a woman. And I said, oh, I forgot to tell you that story. It’s.
Here’s what I forgot,
Alison Brown: and this is also assuming that I haven’t forgotten anything.
Jill Jaracz: Well, I’m, we’ll get to you next. Exactly. It’s what we forgot. So what I just, there’s no notes on here. Which is, I had to put the notes in of what I forget so I don’t forget to remember again. uh, listener Charlotte went to, team figure skating last night and she was sitting by people who had flags for every nation participating and they waved them for every person.
Isn’t that fantastic?
Alison Brown: That is one special kind of skating fan, and I love that.
Jill Jaracz: That is so good. I went to speed skating yesterday. If everybody remembers including me, and
Alison Brown: was that yesterday?
Jill Jaracz: A [00:03:00] week ago, uh, so I’m sitting down and a volunteer comes up to me and says, Ooh, I would like to trade pins with you. And I had just traded on the metro there with a, a German youth, athlete because they, they brought their youth over to, to cheer for Germany and probably watch. How everything works. Yeah, exactly.
So we traded for an, I got a nice team Deutsche launch Pin. And usually my, my thing is if it’s on my lanyard, it’s tradable. And I put that one on my lanyard ’cause I couldn’t grab, throw it into my bag. And she spotted that one was like, oh, I want that one. I’m like, oh no. And so I said, I tried to. Make a good trade and she wouldn’t trade the pin I wanted.
And then I said, well, I dug in my bag and I said, well, you can have this. Keep the flame alive, pin. And she goes, I already have that. And then she looks at me and goes, you were at rowing, weren’t you last in Paris? And I said, [00:04:00] no. But then we figured out that she was the volunteer manager at the rowing slash canoe.
Slalom venue and we had chatted and exchanged pins there and I totally remembered her from that, which was awesome, which is why I have a photo with her.
Alison Brown: That’s fantastic.
Jill Jaracz: So she, she did find a very special pin from a photographer that I got. Not many of them exist.
Alison Brown: Fantastic.
Jill Jaracz: So that was fun.
Alison Brown: I had two people today.
Yes. At the event I went to. Say hello to me and say, now where have I met you before?
Jill Jaracz: Oh, and have you met them?
Alison Brown: No. This is now, this happened in China. This happened in Paris. This happened at the Boston World Championships, and now this has happened in Italy.
Jill Jaracz: I think your photo’s been released.
Alison Brown: I think they forget that.
It’s the thing that’s a stay away from this [00:05:00] crazy lady. They’re lulled by that short little woman, but. They don’t really know.
Jill Jaracz: , Uh, another thing I forgot to tell you is that I had my own magical hour vacuuming.
Alison Brown: Oh, where was this?
Jill Jaracz: Oh, this was right here in house.
Alison Brown: Did you have to vacuum?
Jill Jaracz: I tracked mud in all over the floor.
Like I better vacuum this up. And we have a little, uh, cordless vacuum.
Alison Brown: Oh, nice.
Jill Jaracz: So I pulled it out and figured out, eventually figured out how to use it right when I was done, you know. It, I got it to work and, and I think we’ll pull it out one time. Maybe we can tape early one time, or I’ll, I’ll record it the next time and we’ll just shut, uh, drop it in so you can hear what the vacuuming sounds like.
We haven’t seen a whole lot of floor maintenance, unfortunately.
Alison Brown: No. A lot of ice maintenance.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Makes sense. We haven’t dealt with a lot of floor. We have all ice that we’re dealing with. Right. So only at curling would we really see. Floor maintenance.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And we haven’t been at the main press center at a certain hour of day where you would typically [00:06:00] see people cleaning up.
So I’m not sure we’re, I don’t know, man.
Alison Brown: I don’t know. There’s no vacuuming to be had, so we’ll just have to record some the, the vacuuming that we do here.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly, exactly. Did you, what did you forget to tell everyone yesterday?
Alison Brown: No, I didn’t forget to tell everybody anything.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well, okay. So it still is.
What did Jill forget? Challenge. Challenge on for you to forget something
Alison Brown: clearly.
What Olympics officiating or volunteer job would we want to do?
Jill Jaracz: Alright. What officiating a volunteer job would we want to do?
Alison Brown: So I’m going with the blue paint people on the hills because not only do they get to paint, they have a backpack, paint automatic sprayer. Do they
Jill Jaracz: really? Oh my gosh.
Alison Brown: Yes, with like the garden hose effect.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, so it’s kind of like if you were curling Ice
Alison Brown: sprayer?
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Yes. So it’s like the same spray bottle. Oh my gosh. You do the pebble thing, but they do the blue paint lines.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, that it would be fantastic.
Alison Brown: Only problem is that they’re on skis and I can’t, I’ve never skied.
But I think given that the [00:07:00] fact that they mostly stand in one place and just sort of edge their way slowly, I think it’s a pretty rudimentary level of skiing.
Jill Jaracz: I, I just got an image of you.
Alison Brown: The lines are very crooked. Is
Jill Jaracz: that what you’re saying? No, we didn’t even get to lines. ’cause the blue paint’s all over you.
Papa Smurf at
Alison Brown: rolling down the hill.
Jill Jaracz: That’s right, that’s right. Um, I was at ice hockey tonight and I think I would like to be the Zamboni line smoother. So once the, when the Zambonis go around, sometimes they leave a little. Chunks of ice here and there, and there are people who have it. It’s not a squeegee, it’s it’s, but it’s on, on a stick and it looks like it would be a brush, but it’s a, a piece of fabric that just flaps out behind and you kind of wipe it up.
It’s not a bad job. Also on skates also because it’s a blinking at me, my bracelet from the opening ceremony still is still flashing still, [00:08:00] but it’s flashing faster and faster and dimmer.
Alison Brown: So it’s like a star about to burn out,
Jill Jaracz: right? So if you wanna place bets on when my. Thing will con out.
Alison Brown: We’re on day three.
This
Jill Jaracz: is pretty
Alison Brown: amazing. Yeah, it’s
Jill Jaracz: pretty amazing. Alright.
Cultural experiences in Valtellina and at the Olympic cauldron
We had a lot of cultural stuff going on today.
Alison Brown: We were very busy culture wise. You had a whole day of culture?
Jill Jaracz: I did have a day of culture.
Alison Brown: Are you wiped out?
Jill Jaracz: I was very tired and then I went to. Hockey.
Alison Brown: And then you went to hockey, then I went to, you could, you could have skipped hockey.
Jill Jaracz: I thought about it. I really did. And I was like, no, just force yourself to go. Because sometimes they, like, if you hit the wall, you just gotta force yourself through.
Alison Brown: Yeah. I can’t force myself through the wall
Jill Jaracz: and
Alison Brown: we know this about us.
Jill Jaracz: And, uh, uh, all the, I was better for it. I will say that. Um, so, uh, the people from.
The Val Tourism Agency, uh, has been having day tours and they’ve had a couple two day tours as well, and we have both been selected for them. I got to go today on [00:09:00] the taste of authenticity.
Alison Brown: Yes. ‘
Jill Jaracz: cause you’re the taste of tradition.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So. Velina is an area, and that’s where Bour and Lavino are, where the Alpine men’s, Alpine and ski mountaineering is in Borneo.
And then, uh, the freestyle stuff is all in Lavino. And you would think that they’re on opposite ends of a valley. Maybe they’re right by each other. No, this valley runs east to west. It doesn’t run north to south. And it’s that way because, uh, two tectonic plates shifted and that’s how the mountains got created and the valley got created there.
So, uh, we went around and saw, uh, quite a few things. These amazing waterfalls that were da Vinci got inspired by them apparently, but they were running at a pretty good clip. And then our, our lovely tour guide Matilde said, oh yeah, you should see ’em. And when this is like nothing, when it’s, when the snow is melted.
They just [00:10:00] gush and people go and hang out around there like it’s their beach and there’s food stands and stuff going on, and you even have to pay to go in on the weekends when it’s summertime. But it, it, it was just stunningly gorgeous. Um, we went to this big palazzo. That was, uh, oh man. I just so wanted to know about this family.
When we were done or make, make up stuff about the family, it was this family, uh, of brothers who did, uh, trading because Valino was a big stop on the way from North and Switzerland down to the south of Italy. So they were big traders and they had this big palazzo that is so decked out in paint. Design and the guest book, when people would stay there, the guest book was on the walls.
So the walls are like, have different people scribbling on them here and there. They’ve just left it. I mean, when they restored it, they restored that [00:11:00] in there too. So that was kind of funky. Um, a lot of short beds because people were afraid to lie down. If you lied down, you died. That was the thinking, right?
You had
Alison Brown: to be sort of at an angle.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Um, beautiful gardens. It was just, it was really, really lovely.
Alison Brown: It sounds very
Jill Jaracz: Italian. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. They had a, a, a boardroom kind of thing where they did their business deals and there was a spy room element to it, so they’d put a secretary back there who would take notes for the whole meeting.
That was pretty cool. They had the bishop’s room, so if the bishop from Cuomo came, he stayed in a certain room and it had a trap door in the ceiling for. The ladies to come in,
Alison Brown: in the ceiling.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: So they would just drop them and like bounce them off
Jill Jaracz: the bed. I guess. I have no idea how it worked, but they said Trab door.
I, I don’t, I wish it would’ve opened, but you never know. Maybe, maybe that’s just myth. Who knows? This is, [00:12:00] you know, it’s a few hundred years old at this point. Um, we also had a lovely lunch with local. Delicacies. Um, so local delicacies, the, like, the first ingredient is butter. The second ingredient is cheese.
Alison Brown: The third ingredient is an upset stomach.
Jill Jaracz: So we had these like mashed potatoes with butter and cheese and green beans in them and scallions, and they were very good.
Alison Brown: They
Jill Jaracz: sound amazing. And then they had like little fried cheese bites, which weren’t like a big mozzarella stick that you think of. Uh, in America, they were lightly fried, but they were also delicious.
And we had a special type of pasta. There were two versions of it, uh, from two different towns in the the Valley. And when you go on your tour, you’re going to the town where Matilde is from.
Alison Brown: Oh, yay.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So she said, watch it. Everyone’s gonna say hi to me ’cause I know everyone there and, and. [00:13:00] And, and she was just delightful.
I will say that. Oh, I’m so glad. ’cause she’s my
Alison Brown: tour guide
Jill Jaracz: as well. Yes. Yeah, she’s just been going to Val Lina and back all the time. But, uh, um, the two different types of pasta were also good. Lots of cheese, different colors of pasta in there. So hers, the, the one from Matilda’s region had some black flour in the pasta, so it was all very good.
Little bit of wine with that. And then we had, for dessert, it was like, um, a, a sweetened focaccia, they called it. Mm-hmm. So it was a, it was, that was a good tasty dessert with a little bit of fennel, hint of fennel mm-hmm. To it. And then these special cookies that are, uh, people try to copy them, but the original, the factory was closed.
Um, uh, or they were like, they’re just three ingredients. Flour, butter, butter, butter. Actually it’s butter, flour, and sugar. But apparently these two women who make them, uh, know the recipe and they make ’em all like by hand. [00:14:00] So we have a package of them. ’cause I bought a package ’cause people want and they’re, they’re also special ’cause every package is wrapped in wrapping paper.
Alison Brown: I was wondering what the gift was about. Yes. I didn’t know if you got a gift at your little tour today. So basically
Jill Jaracz: put a pin in that. ’cause we did get gifts.
Alison Brown: Oh
Jill Jaracz: good. Um, we also visited, um. They kept calling it pot stone ’cause this area is big on pot stone and uh, he is the last guy to make stuff with it and he makes these stone pots.
I know that sounds so dumb. Cooking pots, so like kind. I just got the joke.
It’s only day three folks. Oh, we’re good. Oh
Alison Brown: dear.
Jill Jaracz: But they’re kind of like, he, he carves out the stone. He makes a pot and he puts, uh, like iron or copper rims on it. And it’s [00:15:00] kind of like a, an old, I wouldn’t say old timey, like medieval, like you hang a pot on a st. Oh yes. Like a
Alison Brown: caldron.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Yeah. It’s kind of caul esque, except for now he has flat bottoms, so you can put it on the stove.
On the stove
Alison Brown: top.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And he makes, uh, cooking stone trays. He makes, uh, other, other types of trays. He makes, uh, goblets. And then when he does the, the pots, he has to cut out the inside. Well, he uses that inside, but, and makes a smaller pot. And you keep going smaller and smaller and smaller until you just have like this button.
And so they take in a bunch of buttons and they put ’em in. The pavement as like sidewalk stuff. So there’s this whole area in this little town, uh uh, Bina, I believe it’s called, but I’ll fact check that for tomorrow. And, um, uh. There’s this whole little sidewalk area that’s [00:16:00] just all these buttons that they put in the ground to, to not waste them.
So that was very cool. And um, we also did wine tasting. Very nice. The valley there. One person said mud slide. Somebody else said glacier. Like 10,000 years ago something happened and when it receded, um, it created all these caves. So this one side has all these caves and so businesses will keep stuff like wine in these caves.
One, one, the winery we went to used to make beer too, and they would do beer in the caves and people just own them privately and it’s like a hangout spot.
Alison Brown: Speaking of pot stone.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Yeah. They go in, especially in summertime when it’s hot, they go in these cool caves and, you know, you set up a picnic or something, hang out with your friends in your cave.
It’s kind of, it’s kind of charming. It’s, it’s [00:17:00] also, it’s very unique. And then the other side. Uh, because the one side was caves, the other side is terrorist vineyard.
Alison Brown: Oh,
Jill Jaracz: yes. And it’s, uh, the wine was very good. The wine comes from there, but you can’t get machinery up there, so everything has to be handpicked.
Alison Brown: So it’s very small operations. So these are
Jill Jaracz: not it of what they, they also learned how to make. Grape baskets that you put on your back, you stack ’em up on your back and so you can carry more grapes and not damage them as much. Hmm. So it very ingenious. Uh, lovely, lovely time there. And appreciated Velina.
Uh, we did get a little gift bag with bottle of wine. Oh wow. And, uh, a, uh. International Con electrical converter plug converter. Oh yeah, that, that’s
Alison Brown: handy.
Jill Jaracz: Goes for multiple regions.
Alison Brown: Nice.
Jill Jaracz: So thank you very much. It was a lovely time. I can’t wait to hear what you do ’cause you’re doing something totally different.
Alison Brown: [00:18:00] Yes. I went to see the Cauldron show this evening.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: So, uh, with Marco, uh, who is the creative director of all the ceremonies and. Which was great. We got to talk to him up close and personal, and I got to ask, I got to tell him, first of all, how amazing the, the ceremony was and how much we enjoyed it. But I did get to ask him, did anything go wrong that we didn’t see?
And he laughed and he said, I wouldn’t tell you, which I appreciated. I appreciated the humor. Um, he also said that the cauldron will not obviously stay where it is right now ’cause it’s right in the middle of the Arco de Apache and kind of in that. Arch. Mm-hmm. So that they don’t wanna leave it there, but they do wanna find a home for it in the city.
And the organizing committee is in talks with the mayor’s office. Oh, nice. To find a home for that cauldron so that it’s not going to just disappear. They’re going to have [00:19:00] to take it apart, obviously from that spot, but possibly put it someplace else.
Jill Jaracz: That would
Alison Brown: be cool. So that, that is amazing. Um, so every night at six, between six and 11 on the hour, there is a light show.
And the cauldron expands during the show to its largest size, which is not that much bigger than the size. It starts in with music and lights. This show is about five minutes long, but hundreds of people a. Gathered in the courtyard or, or in the, in the plaza to see the show. And, uh, Beech also made a point of saying that they created this to be social media ready.
That part of the point is we wanted this to be a part of that social media landscape because a lot of the events, number one, you can’t take video.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: And it’s not the kind of thing that’s quick. You know, it’s an hour long speed skating race. It’s not a five minute light show. [00:20:00] So they’re trying to tap into that element to get that population excited about the Olympics, and also having it in the middle of the city rather than off tucked away.
Since so many of the venues are at the end of. Trail, uh, tram lines and subway lines. It’s not in the city center. So they wanted something that would bring people together since there really isn’t an Olympic park,
Jill Jaracz: right? That’s, that is about the. Most you could say is an Olympic Park area. ’cause there’s a bunch of other stuff to do and I will say after seeing sand zero, I can see you don’t put a caldron on top of that.
Alison Brown: Sand Zero is barely holding it together as it is. So then after this we got to see the museum section of Clubhouse 26 Oh. Which is the on location hospitality suite. They have two buildings at the ADE Apache, which are rented [00:21:00] out for special occasions and events. So that’s what they’re used for. But they’ve set one of them up as a museum, and then the other is for the food drink party area.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Alison Brown: So in the museum section, they had all the medals from all the winter games. Nice. Did get an excellent picture of 1956.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, excellent.
Alison Brown: They had all the posters.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, nice.
Alison Brown: From all the winter games. They had some torches. They did have obviously this torch, which we have not seen closeup. It hasn’t been on any of the events, so I got a good closeup look.
It does look way better in person.
Jill Jaracz: Okay, good.
Alison Brown: Because the sheen has many colors to it. It’s not quite as flat as it photographs. Oh, so that blue tone. Really moves in the light.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, that’s cool.
Alison Brown: So even though it’s that long, skinny, very simple design, the light plays with the color in a way that was not visible in a photograph.
Jill Jaracz: Very nice.
Alison Brown: [00:22:00] So I, I too, was fed today. I had my first official glass of Prosecco.
Jill Jaracz: Did it, was it the 2026 Prosecco?
Alison Brown: It was the 2026 Prosecco.
Jill Jaracz: And because we have not popped that bottle yet,
Alison Brown: it is very tasty. Oh. And I had something called Russian salad. This is apparently a northern Italian dish that it’s a dish of vegetables mixed with mayonnaise, and each region and town has its own variation.
We don’t know why it’s called Russian salad. It just is.
Jill Jaracz: I’m glad you started working on that. ’cause you know, I have questions, which I mean like we call German potato salad. German
Alison Brown: potato. German potato salad, but it’s not German at all. So it’s one of those things where it somehow became called Russian salad.
Jill Jaracz: All right, well let’s put that on the list.
Sponsor placement watch
I wanted to do a sponsor placement watch. Because I noticed sponsor placements
Yes.
Jill Jaracz: At at [00:23:00] both figure skating where there were boxes of puffs prominently displayed on the corners of the kiss and cry.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And in ice hockey there is power aid.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: In the boxes. In the penalty boxes.
And they’re doing a big visa gift card giveaway at ice hockey. And lots and lots of sponsor ads.
Alison Brown: Yeah. T-C-T-C-L
Jill Jaracz: yes.
Alison Brown: Has been running a lot of ads in the arena as well that I’ve noticed.
Jill Jaracz: So I’m very curious as how much creep are we gonna get? Because, because this happened at Paris. Yes, we did notice that.
And uh, it’s happening here and LA is next, and they are doing stadium naming rights, and I’m assuming that there will be. Sponsor placement in there too. But where do we start going with, will the Olympics ever say
Alison Brown: field of play?
Jill Jaracz: [00:24:00] Yeah,
Alison Brown: I think it’ll be the pen. You know, it’s always the pendulum with this stuff.
It’s, right now it’s going very slowly into, we’re going to give the advertisers more and more.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: And then at some point it’s gonna be too much. And then can you back off from that? Once you’ve given, once you’ve hit that, uh, that limit?
Jill Jaracz: Oh.
Alison Brown: Before you forget,
Jill Jaracz: before I forget, or should I tell, tell you tomorrow?
Well, well, no, because you’re gonna need to know how to get there anyway. But you shouldn’t listen to me. Um, we, I had to get up very early for this tour. Yes, you
Alison Brown: did.
Jill Jaracz: And, um, uh, I had to go to, uh, the main train station Central and get off and go to the Excelsior Hotel. Meet people and they sent a map with a pin in it.
And I tried to, I just went to the main street ’cause I was like, well, the Excelsior should just be across the block. And I [00:25:00] went down the block to where I thought the entrance would be and it’s roads blocked off. I went, this is not good. So I walked a little further down and was able to get over and I see somebody casing a car.
Checking it all, like seriously checking it out. And I managed to wander around by another row of cars and I realized, oh, this is where the US delegation is staying.
Alison Brown: Oh,
Jill Jaracz: and it’s all blocked off. The cars do say us delegation placards. Inside of ’em, there are secret service all over the place.
Alison Brown: And
Jill Jaracz: that’s where we have to go sweep.
Well, you don’t have to go there. I went all the way around the hotel. You didn’t have to do that. You just had to go across the street and they say, look for the bus. The bus for me was a little passenger van because there were only seven of us. There was.
Alison Brown: Oh, nice.
Jill Jaracz: It was, um. An Italian man, five Greek men and me, [00:26:00] I learned how to say cheers in Greek.
Alison Brown: It’s not Oompa.
Jill Jaracz: No, but they did say opa. They did not. They did, yeah. Not for whatever it was like going, getting into the. I’m getting to the van and I stumble a little bit. Opa,
Alison Brown: it’s like when I discovered that the French really say Ula la
Jill Jaracz: it was, it was pretty good. Okay, so, um, anything else on culture, jazz?
Anything
Alison Brown: jazz?
Jill Jaracz: No. There was no,
Alison Brown: there was no jazz music involved in the Cauldron Lighting show.
Jill Jaracz: I will say I was very surprised to walk home and see almost no cars parked on the street. And then I realized the, the market must be back tomorrow. And I think a sign I was able to interpret a sign saying the market, because by golly, parking here is at a premium and people park on the sidewalks and it’s,
Alison Brown: they do,
Jill Jaracz: it is pretty amazing.
I don’t know how they get out from the sidewalk parking sometimes, but it’s,
Alison Brown: well check out the mink coats tomorrow.
Support independent podcasting and keep this flame alive
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, exactly. Before we get to [00:27:00] today’s results, we would like to thank everyone who donated to our fundraiser to help get us here. If you have just found the podcast, we are doing 32 daily episodes from Milano Cortina over the course of the games. It is expensive to produce and we are an independent outlet, primarily, uh, listener supported.
So, we could use your help keeping our flame alive over the course of the year because we do run year round. And if you can go to flame alive pod.com/support and see the options that we have, if you appreciate the independent voice we bring, please consider supporting us today. Flame Live pod.com/support.
Results
All right. We have results.
Alpine skiing
Alison Brown: We do start an alpine where you have the beautiful blue lines.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: It was the men’s team combined and we have a double gold medalist now.
Jill Jaracz: Already.
Alison Brown: Already. Wow. I’m gonna let you do these names, though.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. So, uh, gold went to AO Alman and Tonge [00:28:00] Neff from Switzerland. Silver went to Vincent Craig, Meyer. And, Manuel Feller from Austria and bronze went to, uh, Switzerland’s, Marco Dermot and Loic Millard from Switzerland.
Alison Brown: So Van Alman won the downhill, if you recall saying that name, a couple days ago.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. Good for him.
Alison Brown: And Marco Derman got himself a bronze.
Jill Jaracz: Hm. Also good.
Alison Brown: Also good. Yeah. So the Swiss had, you had multiple teams for each country.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: Participating. So I think there were actually four Swiss pairs.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Alison Brown: Basically, the entire country of Switzerland and its male population was competing in this race.
Curling
Jill Jaracz: Moving over to curling. We finished out the mixed doubles round robin
Alison Brown: so the final standings for the round Robin was, great Britain was on top eight, eight, uh, wins one loss. Italy was at six and three as was the USA, [00:29:00] the Sweden was at five and four, and then Canada, Norway and Switzerland were all at four and five. Czechia and Korea were both at three and six and Estonia rounded it out at two and seven.
Jill Jaracz: All right. And then we went on to the semi-finals, which we knew who was playing today or we knew who was playing today, yesterday, and I will remember to tell you that tomorrow. Um, so, uh, let’s hear about those semi-finals from our Corina, from our Cortina. Cons. Let’s hear about the semifinals from our Cortina correspondent Doug Hill of the Sports Fan project.
Doug Hill: Hello, this is Doug Hill from the Sports Fan Project, serving as a special Cortina correspondent for the Keep the Flame Alive podcast. Today our traveling party had tickets for the mixed doubles curling semi-finals, the Host Nation, Italy. Was contesting the United States of America and Sweden was taking on Great Britain.
The venue, the Cortina Olympic Stadium was a [00:30:00] treat to see while I was far from a glint in my parents’ eye. In 1956, when the venue was in the spotlight at the Cortina Winter Olympics, it hosted at that time, the opening and closing ceremonies, figure skating and ice hockey. It was an outdoor venue at the time, and I can only imagine how stunning the views of the surrounding Dolomites must have been sitting in the grandstand.
Back in 56, the capacity was close to 5,000 with renovations to enclose and roof the venue. In the early 1980s, the capacity has dropped to below 3000, but the essence of the venue, I suspect, is still very much intact. The wooden stands and the steel girders above, not to mention the metal grates below your feet afford a good bit of reverberation.
And reverberate it did on Monday night. Did I mention the defending Olympic gold medalist and host nation? Italy was playing chance of Italia. Italia rang out many, many times throughout the night after some of the Italians magnificent [00:31:00] throws. There were more than a few American fans in the stands, including the four of us and U-S-A-U-S.
A chance were common as well, though typically drowned out in short order by the Italian faithful. I am sure there were fans of Sweden and great Bri Britain present, but opportunities to hear from them were few and far between. Plus, the Swedish team was virtually unstoppable throwing with an accuracy rate of 91% for the match.
A 5.6 end doomed Great Britain, which was the number one seed entering the semi-finals. The final was nine three Sweden with no eighth end and um, eighth and final end. I’m sorry. Needing to be contested. The Italian and USA match, on the other hand, well, it was nip and tuck the entire way. In the end, it was a mis shot by sweeper Amos Mosser, who was attempting to knock out a pair of American stones and preserve the opportunity for extra ends.
That Miss allowed the American team of Corey Thiefs and Corey [00:32:00] Dropkin, who had the hammer in the bottom of the seventh end, an opportunity, I’m sorry, bottom of the eighth end, an opportunity, I’m sorry, the bottom of the seventh end, an opportunity for a double end. The victory thesis throw was clean and Dropkin gave it just enough TLC along the way to nudge the Italian stone out of the way and secure the Americans of birth.
In Tuesday’s, gold medal match with Sweden. It will be the best finish ever for an American mixed doubles team. Dropkin, who seemed to relish being in the hostile territory all night, occasionally cupping his hand to his ear after a good shot, offered a mighty flex, and then began waving his arms, encouraging the American crowd to get loud and loud.
It got, as the Italian fans began to walk out, those of us supporting the red, white, and blue, however, lingered to salute our mates for a bit longer. The walk back to the transportation venue. Um, the, the transportation venue that I famously referenced last time, they still remain those issues, those challenges, but I’m moving on both literally and [00:33:00] metaphorically.
I enjoyed a slow stroll down Corso Italia Corina’s Main Street Revelers from who knows how many nations milled about toasting successes or drowning their sorrows in the cool night air. The cauldron, as it will be for several more weeks, continues to burn brightly and folks stop to snap a pick or two.
And as we boarded our bus bound for our rental in San Vito, I was a bit emotional knowing this Olympic experience had ended, but the promise of a new adventure in Milan awaits for Keep the Flame alive in Cortina. I’m Doug Hill from the Sports Fan Project. I.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Doug. Um, heartbreaking for Italy
Alison Brown: heart. It was one of those matches where I was happy whoever won and I was sad. Whoever. Lost. Yeah. Yeah. I, I couldn’t win in that situation.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Because Cory Dropkin has tried so many times to get into the Olympics, finally realizing it, getting the [00:34:00] US Cory Dropkin, Cory Tees both working so hard to get the US to, uh, the medal round.
So they’re getting a medal and this is gonna be the best result the US has had in this event. So that’s pretty awesome. But it’s, it is crushing to see. A team as strong as
Alison Brown: defending world. Defending world champions.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: so we’ll have Italy and Great Britain for the bronze and USAID and Sweden for the gold.
Jill Jaracz: And, uh, unfortunately your, your boy, you. Boy, not calling him your boy.
Alison Brown: You’ve always called him my boy.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay. I mean, it’s something we joke on at home, but
Alison Brown: my boy amo.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So afterwards he got very upset and had a little bit of an outburst and kind of smashed his, uh, his broom broom a little bit. He did say.
They threw away the game and he thought they played good and they had some good chances and they didn’t defend very well. So, [00:35:00] um, they went for the big score instead of going incremental. So up and down game. This one looked like a, was a, a just a nailbiter.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And um, he’s emotional. He said, you know, you’re one step away and you see a game slip away like that hurts a bit.
So.
Alison Brown: I, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. ’cause people were talking about this, like he took the broom and he smacked stephania with it or something.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well no, I didn’t think
Alison Brown: it now. No, it was very,
Jill Jaracz: this was very,
Alison Brown: yeah,
Jill Jaracz: it wasn’t very gentile. Come on.
Alison Brown: No, no. It wasn’t
Jill Jaracz: just, it was just, it wasn’t
Alison Brown: very Amos Moser.
Jill Jaracz: So lot of frustration.
Figure Skating
Alright, moving over to figure skating.
Alison Brown: This is a bit of a shocker to me at least. Mm-hmm. I think to many people. So let’s, they had, we had the rhythm dance portion of the ice dance, so you got to spend a couple hours in the nineties, which not a bad deal, but the standing, surprisingly, the French, uh, Forer, Boreux, and Scissone are ahead of Chuck and Bates.
[00:36:00] Less than a point. Wow. In third are the Canadians, Gillis, and Poer. In fourth is the Brits Fear and Gibson, and then the Italians round out the top five. That’s Kenard and Fabry. Uh, this is kind of how we expected it, but slightly unexpected in that the Canadians are in third, whereas the Brits have been outscoring them in the rhythm dance.
Jill Jaracz: Hmm.
Alison Brown: And the same thing with the, uh, French and the Americans. So it really is gonna come down to the free dance. It’s anybody’s game at this point, and we’ll see what. What the judges think on the night.
Freestyle Skiing
Jill Jaracz: Oh, that’s gonna be exciting. Over in freestyle skiing, we had women’s free ski slope style gold Went to, uh, matilde gr mode from, Switzerland, who, secured gold on run number two of three runs.
So, I guess she took an easy run. For the last one,
Alison Brown: wearing the Swiss flag as a cape.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, [00:37:00] that’s nice. Uh, silver went to Eileen Goo from China and bronze went to Megan Oldham from Canada. uh, it’s a repeat gold and silver from Beijing,
Alison Brown: and what surprised me so much is they both scored 86 point something.
Mm-hmm. The gold and silver, the bronze scored 76. Wow. Point 46. Wow. So the gold and silver were, were a full 10 points beyond the rest of the field.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Um, Oldham was fourth in Beijing, so getting onto the podium, huge accomplishment. She also taped her pants with duct tape and she said she did that for maximum speed ’cause she’s light and she needs to be fast.
So I wonder if we’re gonna start seeing duct taped pants, and if that’s the case, are we gonna start seeing new uniforms? That may take, that may take a long time to evolve, but I wonder if somebody goes, yeah, we don’t like this.
Alison Brown: Yeah. If that becomes the new cheating quote unquote. Yeah. You know, not that because [00:38:00] this is not illegal, she didn’t do anything against the rules.
But if this kind of alteration of uniforms then becomes a problem. Mm-hmm. ’cause you’re duct taping yourself, will that have to be outlawed?
Ice Hockey
Jill Jaracz: Something to watch. Moving over to ice hockey, we had more group action for the women, USA beat Switzerland, five zero, Canada Beat Czechia five to one. That’s in Group A.
I was at that match and at the end, Ben Waterworth from off the podium found me, which I didn’t. I was so surprised to see him. It was fantastic.
Alison Brown: I didn’t think he had any hockey tickets.
Jill Jaracz: He’s got hockey tickets. He got hockey tickets now. So, um, this was very Lopsided Canada Outshot Chea 34 to 19. They were scoring goals almost immediately.
, And I was impressed that Chea got a goal and we got to hear their goal song.
Alison Brown: Oh, what is it
Jill Jaracz: that do? Oh, [00:39:00] right, right, right.
Alison Brown: We heard it the other day.
Jill Jaracz: So that was nice. There were some check fans in the audience, which was really cool. One dressed as had a big lion head on. That was something to see. Big candida contingent.
Yes. Mainly. And everybody was into this. I wanted a bigger. Bigger venue kind of, although I think there might’ve been a few seats open still, but people into everything. And the, the host, uh, who has been working so hard to get people to strike a pose. When he,
Alison Brown: he, they don’t understand the strike oppose game.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, they understood it tonight. Oh,
Alison Brown: tonight they
Jill Jaracz: understood it. Oh, thank goodness. They also understood do the sport. And the sport tonight was ski jumping. So what they do is they say, okay, pretend you’re ski jumping. And they put the camera on you. And you have to try. That was not a good sport to do, but everybody who got put up on the jumbotron [00:40:00] totally made it work.
Alison Brown: Excellent.
Jill Jaracz: So that was a lot of fun. And the host was like, uh. Sounded so relieved.
Alison Brown: He was probably relieved that they finally understanding the game.
Jill Jaracz: It’s a, it’s a she.
Alison Brown: Oh, you had a she tonight? Yeah, we had a she, yeah, we’ve had a, a, a he the past two days.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. Um, still a karaoke still going on with a very popular Italian song and everybody was singing it, so it was really, really fun there.
Also, thank you to the volunteer who got me table seating. Oh. It was so nice.
Alison Brown: You were so relieved. You got some work done while you were cheering for the Yes,
Jill Jaracz: yes,
Alison Brown: the teams,
Jill Jaracz: um, and then over in group B, Italy, beat Japan three to two, and
Alison Brown: I was at that game.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, how was that?
Alison Brown: That was a lot of fun.
Jill Jaracz: I bet.
Alison Brown: First of all, it was very, even, you know, it was one of those pulling the, the, the Japanese pulled the skater at the end or pulled the goalie at the end ’cause it was so close all the way through.
It was. A very [00:41:00] even game, very even play not chippy, which
Jill Jaracz: mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: I appreciated. And you know, of course the Italian crowd.
Jill Jaracz: Oh
Alison Brown: yeah. Who lost their minds.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, I’m sure. That’s fantastic.
Alison Brown: And then Germany beat France two to one. Alright. And group B.
Jill Jaracz: So we do have some fun stuff going on. Beyond USA Canada, so we could have some interesting semi-finals going on.
Alison Brown: I hope so.
Jill Jaracz: It could be good. It could be good.
Luge
Moving over to Luge. We had the women’s singles runs one and two. So the standings after those two runs are, uh, Germany’s. Julia Talbots is in, uh, first place and Germany’s Merril. Malu. Frale is in second, and Latvia’s. Alina Botta is in third. [00:42:00]
Alison Brown: You know who’s in Fifth
Jill Jaracz: Shook
Alison Brown: Ashley Far.
Jill Jaracz: Very nice. I’m excited about this. So she’s got herself in a good position.
Alison Brown: She is looking, looking good.
Ski Jumping
Jill Jaracz: Moving over to ski jumping. We had the men’s normal hill competition tonight. This one was a shocker, absolutely stunned everyone. Uh, gold went to Philippe Ryman from Germany. Silver went to, uh, Casper Thomas, or.
Temasek from Poland who’s only 19 years old
Alison Brown: and they all look about 12.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. ’cause they’re really tiny’s been,
Alison Brown: they’re really tiny and baby faces.
Jill Jaracz: And, and we know that there has been speculation and controversy over ski jumping suits. Some coaches have been banned over altering those, um.
Hopefully this will just be a clean competition.
Alison Brown: We’ll find out.
Jill Jaracz: [00:43:00] bronze was a tie between Japan’s, NDO Ren and Bro, uh, Switzerland’s Gregor de Schwan, and, the World Cup Leader Doman Previz from Slovenia, who was expected to win tonight. It took sixth.
Alison Brown: That’s why you play the game.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
Snowboard
That is one to watch. Uh, over in snowboard we had the women’s big air and we did not get a threepeat for gold from Austria Austria’s, Ana Gosser.
Alison Brown: So this event has only been in the Olympics three times.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: And she’s won it twice. And was in the hunt
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: To again. Take this event, but we got a new gold medalist.
Jill Jaracz: That’s right. That is, uh, marassi Kokomo from Japan. She was the Beijing 2022 bronze medalist. So she has moved up to gold. Uh, silver went to Zoe Sadowski Senate from New Zealand.
Alison Brown: Repeat, bronze, uh, [00:44:00] repeat silver medalist and she got a bronze in 2018.
Jill Jaracz: Go silver ferns.
Alison Brown: See, I got myself outta practice. Go silver fern.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you. and bronze went to Korea’s Ung Yun, who is 18 years old and was leading,
Alison Brown: she was leading into the third run and she’s never won a World Cup event. So she kind of came outta nowhere with no pressure, and I think the pressure got to her a little bit on the third run.
Jill Jaracz: Oh man.
Alison Brown: But yeah, she was very emotional on the, on the metal stand.
Jill Jaracz: Um. Some, uh, this is Ana Gosser, or she got eighth and this is her last Olympics. Um, we’ll see her in slopestyle. She’s not done yet, but, um, uh, everyone was very effusive with their admiration. Admiration for her and what she’s done for the sport. [00:45:00] Apparently I have not seen this coverage yet, and I want to go back.
They’ve got drones.
Alison Brown: They’ve got drones.
Jill Jaracz: Well, Anna Goss’s boyfriend, racist drones, and so he follows her with the drone while she’s practicing so he can train while she’s training. He’s training, but he’s training with the drone on her runs.
Alison Brown: Well, he would get that actually, I, I really would like to talk to some of these athletes afterwards if they can hear the drones.
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know, but sometimes it hits her. If he messes up
Alison Brown: and she keeps him around.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Well, it’s just a little, I’m sure it’s a not pleasant whack, but I don’t think he means it.
Alison Brown: Or maybe he does.
Speed Skating
Jill Jaracz: Ooh, ooh, uh, let’s move over to speed skating. We had the Women’s 1000 meters Tonight. This, this sounds crazy. I was watching the data version on my phone while I was coming back from Velina and I’m trying to be quiet ’cause I had drifted off to sleep off and [00:46:00] on.
But now it was like, oh, you, you gotta watch. And I, I’m fist pumping and trying not to scream in the truck.
Alison Brown: Were you feeling very Dutch in the truck?
Jill Jaracz: No, I was feeling very American because, um, our Aaron Jackson, after she raced, she was in first place for several pairs until we got to, uh, the pair with Netherlands, fem cock, who got an Olympic record,
Alison Brown: but did not win the gold medal because
Jill Jaracz: her teammate, UTA ldo.
Also got an Olympic record and slid into gold. And um, of course Femke is a little emotional about that because, you know, you get an Olympic record and you’re like, I’m getting the gold medal, and then suddenly it’s taken away from you.
Alison Brown: You have an Olympic record for all of five minutes.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, exactly. Uh, but she said, I have a lot of respect for Utah.
I’m more motivated for the [00:47:00] 500 and the 1500, which we’re gonna have to split and see. Those?
Alison Brown: Yes. ‘
Jill Jaracz: cause the crowd must have been insane because it’s all
Alison Brown: Dutch.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. It must have been insane. Um, also on the podium is, uh, TKI mijo from Japan who took the bronze. So, uh, Erin finished sixth when all was said and done, and she seemed pretty pleased with her race.
Alison Brown: I mean, this is always her second event, you know? Mm-hmm. 500 is really her bread and butter, but it’s not like she doesn’t want her race. Right. Well, in the thousands, so Right. And she did have the lead, like you said, for, for a decent amount of time
Jill Jaracz: by, by a couple of seconds. It was a pretty solid lead and I was pumped for that.
But we’ll be pumped again for the 500. Alright.
Team Keep the Flame Alive Watch
We have, uh, that is the end of coverage for today, but we have people from Team Keith, the Flame Alive, who are competing tomorrow.
Alison Brown: So [00:48:00] tomorrow Julia Kern and Bruno Mora will be racing in the women’s cross country Sprint, classic and gustu marker will be racing in the men’s and Corinne Stoddard will be in the short track.
500 meters.
Jill Jaracz: Alright, and news flash. Italy’s making history. They’ve won, they’ve gotten to the quarterfinals in the Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament.
Alison Brown: Viva Italia.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, this has gotta be fun.
Shout Outs
Alright, We have shout outs today.
Alison Brown: First one is Max from Seattle, Washington,
Jill Jaracz: and that would be max, like max angst from Switzerland.
Who, uh. Did Bob Sled at Cortina in 1956 and won bronze and the two men, he and his Bob sledding brother Rie, who competed at 1948 and then also 1956 where he won gold and the four man, they were butchers and they ran an international meat business.
Alison Brown: Well, they wouldn’t know anything about Russian salad.
Jill Jaracz: No, I guess not,
Alison Brown: because the point of Russian salad is there’s no meat in it.[00:49:00]
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well. I guess not at the, the brothers butcher shop.
Alison Brown: And our second shout out is Dan from Brooklyn, New York.
Jill Jaracz: Of course, like Dan Janssen, legendary speed skater who, uh, if you are a Patreon patron, we read about him, for our, could you be Olympic in Your Endeavors Project that we did last year?
So two worthy Olympians, two very worthy donors.
Alison Brown: And we are grateful to them.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you Max And Dan. And we have mascots.
Alison Brown: Yes. So of course we still have Jill’s mascot every day. Abby. Now you know Abby personally.
Jill Jaracz: I do know Abby
Alison Brown: is, and Abby is a lovely cat.
Jill Jaracz: Abby is a lovely cat, Abby. Very special. She seems
Alison Brown: like a lovely cat.
Jill Jaracz: Abby also likes to, uh, c Claude the, the windows to try to get to the animals outside.
Alison Brown: I don’t see a problem with that. I often do that at bakery counters.
We also have another social cat as our [00:50:00] mascot of the day and that’s Risa Hawkeye from Book Club Claire, I am wondering if Risa and Abby could get together and have a play date. Have a little sh Stan mascot play date.
Jill Jaracz: I wonder how long it would take Ka to be. I, I mean I guess it depends on the cat and
Alison Brown: they’re both social cats who like people, so I think they would be hanging out with us.
Jill Jaracz: Maybe, but, uh, thank you two time. Multiple. Well, thank you multiple mascot Za. We appreciate you and we appreciate you too, Abby, and that is gonna do it for this episode. If you want even more of the most fun coverage from the games, hit us up. We’re at flame alive pod.com. That’s your source to get all of our socials, our daily newsletter, and direct ways to contact us.
So check it out, flame alive pod.com. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for what we forgot to tell you about today.
Alison Brown: I already just remembered something I forgot to tell you about.
Jill Jaracz: Awesome, awesome. So, and, and we’re gonna have more fun from Milan Cortina. So, [00:51:00]
Alison Brown: and until next time, chow and keep the flame alive.